CONCEIT vs. CUSTOM.

LA. ROCHEFOUCAULD has said, in one of his maxims, that hatred towards the popular is nothing but love for popularity.

This trait of human character betrays itself, with as much force as it does anywhere, in college life. In a college like this, where the social side of our characters is cultivated to such an extent that we are often accused of neglecting more substantial elements, where it is particularly true that a man is known by the company he keeps, and where social position carries with it influence, -in a college like this we often meet with persons who openly depreciate what they inwardly esteem.

It is interesting to hear some acute observer of society assure you that his classmate Fawn is a toady, that he does everything for policy, and that he has fallen in with the social customs which are undermining all the manhood of this college. It is no less edifying to hear some philosophic spirit pronounce social success a bubble which men are foolishly pursuing, and confidently declare that complete independence is the only position that can be taken by a man who has any self-respect. When this frank philosopher assures us that, whatever others may do, he will not "crook the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning," we are apt to conclude that he is a disappointed aspirant for popularity, and we are apt to be right in our conclusion.

His argument is a simple one: I am independent, therefore I am unpopular. Let us see if his reasoning is sound. It is one of the conditions of civilization that the customs and precedents of the society in which we live shall influence our conduct. It is the conservative element in a state that keeps it from anarchy. But these commonplace truths are ignored by the independent man. In the face of established and recognized principles he blurts out his opinions. He thinks it is great and original to pronounce, though unsolicited, his views on college life, and the motives which he thinks should guide it. Not only does he air his notions with self-complacency, but he calls every one a toady who is not of his way of thinking. This is his self-respect! It looks more like a lack of gentlemanly feeling towards others.

I think the cause of such a man's unpopularity is his disregard of the fact that there is a mean between servility and self-assertion. It is a tendency common in young men to take extremes. They seem to feel, in spite of the auream mediocritatem of Horace (who, by the by, knew more about the world than they do), that their sense of right will not admit of their pursuing any course that lies between obsequiousness and arrogance. I recognize as plainly as any one can the need of a man's sticking to the right if he would develop a character worth having, but at the same time I am convinced that to speak one's opinion effectively requires a degree of tact as well as determination that few possess. It is not eccentricity which is a matter of reproach at Harvard; it is the lack of manners and good sense.

Some one has aptly said that "the genuine gentleman must possess a good degree of moral freedom; but the gentleman robes manliness in courtesy."

And what is this popularity which the independent man professes to scorn? It is the esteem, the respect, and the friendship of manly men. The desire to be liked by those we know is a healthy one, and the individual who separates himself from this desire, who finds pleasure in the admiration of his own ideas, in the constant contradiction of others, and in the affected indifference to the world's sympathy, ought to be pitied for the solitary life he is leading, and for the sad memories he is laying up for the future.

OSSIP.